Overcrowding stress decreases macrophage activity and increases Salmonella Enteritidis invasion in broiler chickens.

Overcrowding stress decreases macrophage activity and increases Salmonella Enteritidis invasion in broiler chickens. Avian Pathol. 2013 Dec 18; Authors: Gomes AV, Quinteiro-Filho WM, Ribeiro A, Ferraz-de-Paula V, Pinheiro ML, Baskeville E, Akamine AT, Astolfi-Ferreira CS, Ferreira AJ, Palermo-Neto J Abstract Overcrowding stress is a reality in the poultry industry. It is known that chickens exposed to long-term stressful situations present a reduction of welfare and immunosuppression. We designed this experiment to analyze the effects from overcrowding stress (Ov) of 16 animals/m(2) on performance parameters, corticosterone serum levels, the relative weight of the bursa of Fabricius, IgA and IgG plasma levels, intestinal integrity, macrophage activity and experimental Salmonella Enteritidis invasion. The results of this study indicate that overcrowding stress decreased performance parameters, induced enteritis and decreased macrophage activity and the relative bursa weight in broiler chickens. When the chickens were similarly stressed and infected with Salmonella Enteritidis, there was an increase of feed conversion and a decrease of IgG plasma levels in the stressed and Salmonella-infected birds. We observed moderate enteritis throughout the duodenum of chickens stressed and infected with Salmonella. The overcrowding stress decreased the macrophage phagocytosis intensity and increased Salmonella Enteritidis counts in the livers of animals cha...
Source: Avian Pathology - Category: Pathology Authors: Tags: Avian Pathol Source Type: research